British Muslim Women Research Articles

‘Double vision’ in the interlegal: the situated pluri‐legal consciousness of British Muslim women

‘Double vision’ in the interlegal: the situated pluri‐legal consciousness of British Muslim women

British Muslim Women in the Cultural and Creative Industries, written by Saskia Warren

British Muslim Women in the Cultural and Creative Industries, written by Saskia Warren

Book review: British Muslim Women in Creative and Cultural Industries

Book review: British Muslim Women in Creative and Cultural Industries

‘Divergent Work Ageing’ and Older Migrants’ (Un)extended Working Lives

This article theorises older ethnic minority women’s work attitudes and labour market behaviour from an intersectional cumulative perspective within the extended working lives contexts. Empirical evidence has been drawn from interviews with South Asian British Muslim women aged between 50 and 66 living in Greater Manchester, UK. The findings show that the cohort’s ageing process is asynchronous with the British work ageing outlook as their cultural understanding of working age, age roles and successful ageing defies the extended working lives philosophies, and cumulative factors including caring responsibilities, legacy inequalities, and health issues present additional challenges for extending their work lives. Their culture- and context-specific work ageing process remains absent in the UK’s labour market discourse and policy landscape. The article theorises their idiosyncratic work ageing including non-conformist attitudes to extending work lives by proposing a ‘divergent work ageing’ model that can guide policymakers in creating inclusive labour market policies.

A conversation about conducting participatory action research with British Muslim women to promote social change

A conversation about conducting participatory action research with British Muslim women to promote social change

Muslim Women, Nikah Marriages, Domestic Abuse and Religious Arbitration in England

Abstract This article explores the underlying causes and motivations surrounding non-legally binding Islamic marriages or nikah-only marriages, and their impact on dispute resolution and the process of obtaining a religious divorce, with a special focus on women experiencing domestic abuse. It draws on empirical data from a study of Islamic divorce in the UK. Inspired by phenomenological approaches, the research involved in-depth interviews with British-Muslim women to gain a well-grounded understanding of the problems associated with Muslim marriage, domestic abuse, and divorce from their lived experiences. Furthermore, the study involved interviews with experts associated with providing informal mediation and religious arbitration ranging from imams to Sharia council judges, as well as professionals such as solicitors and counsellors. Sharia council hearings were also observed and their procedural documents were analysed. The data collected were analysed using a thematic approach, and the emergent themes from the rich data provide a detailed insight into the research problem, firmly embedded in the lived experience of British Muslims.

“We tick: Other” – race, religion, and literary solidarities in three essay anthologies and the neo-liberal marketplace

ABSTRACT This article considers Nikesh Shukla’s The Good Immigrant (2016) alongside two anthologies of essays by British Muslim women: Mariam Khan’s It’s Not About the Burqa (2019) and Sabeena Akhtar’s Cut from the Same Cloth? (2021). Situating them within the publishing industry’s racializing practices, which valorize writing by authors of colour as authentically representative of their cultures while devaluing it as less “literary” than white British writing, the article asks how the foregrounding of religiosity rather than race in Akhtar’s and Khan’s anthologies works to confirm or challenge these dominant terms of reception. The article is interested in how these anthologies might trouble the boundary between “culture” as the values and practices subscribed to by a racially minoritized community, and “culture” as the self-reflexive expression of individual creativity. Ultimately, it suggests the essay anthology might point to a form of literary solidarity that reaches beyond the confines of the neo-liberal marketplace even while remaining partly constrained by them.

Outside belonging: a discursive analysis of British South Asian (BSA) Muslim women’s experiences of being ‘Othered’ in local spaces

ABSTRACT Drawing on empirical research with British South Asian (BSA) Muslim women in Oldham and focussing on the embodied intersectional nature of discrimination they face, this paper explores British Muslim women’s experiences of belonging in local spaces. Through a discursive analysis of place, belonging and identity, this paper argues that BSA Muslim women appear as a visible threat to the nation, occupying a contradictory position of both within the local and national but not part of it. Focused on the context of Oldham, a former mill town in the North of England, findings suggest wider hegemonic discourses of Muslim woman as “Other” are inflected by local dynamics and shape discordant everyday experiences. It is argued that Oldham presents a microcosm with which to view the nations complex relationship with its Muslim minority groups and resonates with the current political landscape of rising right-wing populism and Islamophobia.

Intersectionality as personal: the science identity of two young immigrant Muslim women

ABSTRACT This paper studies intersectional multiplicity by encompassing the ways individuals shape relationships between social structures and their science identity. We discuss the science lives of two sixteen-year-old British South-Asian Muslim women studying in a single-sex independent school in London, both of whom aspire to science careers. Adapting McCall’s ‘intracategorical complexity’ in favouring a case study approach, we present the multiplicity of our participants’ relationships with exclusion and inequality, discrimination and privilege within their lived social settings, and how these relationships shape their identities and ambitions to become scientists. Our findings reveal that despite their similarities in their societally ascribed intersectional makeup, Ayesha and Hanya differ in viewing their intersections as challenges and/or opportunities. They both portray agentic control towards ‘going against the grain’ as future women scientists by negotiating their intersections as they develop their science identity.

Politics of Haya: Embodied Materiality of Piety as Everyday Resistance among British Muslim Women in Ayisha Malik's Fiction

Abstract This article explores how an ethical practice of modesty, represented in Ayisha Malik’s novels Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged (2015), and The Other Half of Happiness (2017), serves as an act of everyday resistance in the context of the issue of gender inequality in postcolonial South Asian Britain. It attempts to understand how religious modalities of agency, shown in the form of wearing hijab, operate against the dominant structures of power. However, drawing on Saba Mahmood’s theorisation of women’s agency in Politics of Piety (2004) as an embodied modality of action rather than simply a synonym for resistance to social norms, this article further argues that the female body in this fiction reshapes the understanding of religious experience through the conception of an embodied materiality of everyday resistance.

Romance and Reception: Ayisha Malik’s Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged and the Limits of Self-Representation of British Muslim Women

Romance and Reception: Ayisha Malik’s Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged and the Limits of Self-Representation of British Muslim Women

БРИТАНСКОСТЬ И ДИАСПОРАЛЬНЫЕ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ (НА МАТЕРИАЛАХ МУСУЛЬМАНСКОЙ ЖЕНСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖНОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ ВЫХОДЦЕВ ИЗ ПАКИСТАНА И БАНГЛАДЕШ)

The article presents the results of a study of British Muslims and multiculturalism in the context of national identity in modern Britain. The authors investigate the mechanisms, strategies and roles of religious, social and gender identities of modern “British Muslim women”, British citizens and residents of cities such as London, Manchester, Oldham, and Bradford. The article focuses on the so-called “third generation” of Muslim women of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin, born and educated in Britain, the so-called Britons “in-between”, and their Britishness. The authors show that British Islam today represents not so much a danger of radicalization, cultural segregation, anti-secular tendencies contrary to British culture—or is breaking with cultural and family connections between different generations within the “immigrant” community. Rather, it is a resource for uniting disparate ethnic communities, contributing to the success of the young generation’s social competition with representatives of “indigenous peoples”, personalization and the reduction of religious radicalization. The study is based on a variety of textual, visual and material sources, as well as original research data (70 in-depth interviews, 52 respondents) from the field seasons of 2012–2020 in the UK’s Pakistan-Bangladeshi regions of Rusholm and Longsite in Manchester, Glodwick in Oldham, Pakistani Manningham in Bradford in Northern England, and the Bangladeshi Tower Helmets in London.

British Muslim women: dreaming identities – insights from social dreaming

This article explores the challenges facing British Muslim women in the UK today in the face of increased racism. Taking Fanon as an initial inspiration, we ask: how can British Muslim women reconcile a British and Muslim identity when government strategy and widespread prejudice make these two identities irreconcilable? The study uses social dreaming as a method to provide opportunities for uncovering hidden and unconscious emotions and thoughts among the participants. We provide a contextual background followed by an analysis of the dreams and associations provided by the group. We conclude that the difficulties in identity for the women are accompanied by profound emotions of fear, mourning and desperation, as well as gender insecurities in relationships with men. Finally, we suggest that policymakers and community leaders should focus on issues around belonging, acceptance, safety and agency for British Muslim women in order to encourage stronger and fairer integrated communities.

Dual identity, conflict, and education: an exploration of the lived experience of social relationships of young British Muslim women who attend British universities

ABSTRACT Previous research concerned with British Muslim women has explored a range of important issues. However, what is missing is research exploring the lived everyday social experiences, including the unique nature of identity formation in British Muslims. This qualitative study tried to address this gap. Five female British Muslims were interviewed, and their interviews analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Three key themes emerged from the data: Constructing identity, Experiencing prejudice in interactions, and Educating oneself and others. The findings demonstrate the complex nature of being a British Muslim woman, the impact of discrimination from various sources and the gendered nature of these experiences. It also highlights the active nature of identity formation, which occurs within and relates to a particular setting and particular experiences. Implications and future research are discussed.

Gender Equality at the Test of Sharia Councils in the UK

As the saying goes ‘good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere!’, whose origin is uncertain, sometimes attributed to American actress and screenwriter Mae West, sometimes to editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurvey Brown, it was taken up as a slogan by feminists who denounce the sexual norm imposed on women by religions. At a time when the influence of religious fundamentalism on State policies seems to be gaining ground (retreat on abortion laws in the United States, in Poland; Sharia courts in Great Britain, etc.), the object of this research note will be to question the articulations between British Muslim women, State multiculturalism and legislation. In Britain, since the 1980s, a network of sharia councils has developed to resolve disputes between Muslims, including resolving family problems. Sharia councils thus reveal the place of Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the issue of divorce. Extremely patriarchal, rarely feminist, often undemocratic, the sharia councils appear as places of power. The latter are often compared to Islamic courts, so-called ‘counseling’ religious services or ‘Islamic family services’ to which Muslims wishing to respect divine law and their religious precepts go – especially women. What does this mean for British Muslim women who use these services? How is the British government responding?

British Muslim women's experience of the networking practice of happy hours

PurposeNetworking is deemed important for women in careers. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the interaction of a specific networking practice with a religious practice and its implications on British Muslim women (BMw). The practice ‘happy hours’ is closely linked with drinking alcohol (Flores-Pereiraet al., 2008), while alcohol consumption is forbidden in Islam.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach was used to interview 37 participants who were in managerial or professional positions.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the presence of alcohol in work-related socializing is a norm, making the practice of ‘happy hours’ invisible and legitimate (Acker, 2006), thereby contributing inadvertently to reinforcing inequality regimes in organizations. Furthermore, the interaction of contradictory religious beliefs/practices of individual employees and organizational practices presents challenges for Muslim women, who feel they have to participate in happy hours as a networking practice in order to progress in careers. While it involves emotional effort, as they persuade themselves to join in activities where alcohol is being served, it paradoxically results in feelings of exclusion and marginalization within the group, as they do not drink alcohol.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on the micro/individual level of analysis, singling out the Muslim female voice while positioning ‘happy hours’ as a ‘networking practice’. It also contributes to the underexplored area of the role of religion and individual behaviour in organizations (Tracey, 2012).

Reformulation of Islamic Matrimonial Law: British Muslims, Contemporary Understandings and Normative Practices

This paper explores the practices of marriage and divorce among British Muslims and draws upon empirical data from a study that employed a phenomenologically-inspired research methodology. The study involved in-depth interviews with British Muslim women to understand the problems associated with Muslim marriage and divorce as reflected in their lived experiences. Furthermore, the study involved interviews with experts or professionals ranging from imams and Shariah council judges to solicitors and counsellors, as well as observations of Shariah council hearings and analysis of their procedural documents. The findings revealed the strong influence of religion in establishing norms and dictating the importance of nikāḥ in establishing the “real” marriage, whereas civil marriage was considered a secondary issue. In the pursuit of divorce, the civil divorce demarcated the severing of the marital relationship; however, participants only felt “free” once they obtained the Islamic divorce. The majority of participants achieved an Islamic divorce without the use of imams or Shariah councils, whilst for others with nikāḥ-only marriages, Shariah councils were the only option available to gain an Islamic divorce.

#YourAverageMuslim: Ruptural geopolitics of British Muslim women's media and fashion

Muslima lifestyle media and fashion are reshaping global media, leisure and recreation, and creating new spaces of identification and belonging in predominantly Western-liberal societies. Typically educated and upwardly mobile, British Muslim women working as cultural producers in media and fashion are finding strategies for challenging stereotypes and resisting socio-economic exclusion. Bringing into dialogue discourses on gender and creative labour with feminist geopolitics and the notion of ruptural (geo)politics, this article reveals the ways in which Muslim women are advancing education and career pathways in emergent creative fields. Informed by interviews, site visits, and discourse analysis of social media channels, it gives emphasis to everyday negotiations at home, in the work-place and on-line. By interrogating notions of Muslimness and womanhood, British Muslim women in media and fashion are re-negotiating familial, community, institutional and societal norms in the contemporary time. At the vanguard of change, then, leading cultural producers and activists are crossing borders in the labour market, and making new images of Muslim women that challenge conservative and Western-liberal thinking on Islam, work, gender and equality.

Negotiating British Muslim belonging: a qualitative longitudinal study

ABSTRACT British Muslims are often viewed as holding values incompatible with Britishness, regarded with suspicion and sometimes subjected to gendered forms of racism. Research projects have found that identifiably Muslim women face everyday microaggressions, yet little is known about how they negotiate both this and their identities over time. This article addresses this gap by reporting the results of qualitative longitudinal research that explores the narratives of two young British Muslim women over a seven-year period. The women were first interviewed when they were single undergraduates in 2010 and followed up as married young professionals in 2017. On both occasions they were negotiating their identities and sense of belonging in a climate of heightened scrutiny of Muslims. The paper examines their reflections on: “fitting in” with Britishness, their religious identities and the complexity of belonging. Methodologically, it contributes to qualitative longitudinal narrative research.

Religion and ethnicity at work: a study of British Muslim women’s labour market performance

The literature on British Muslim women’s labour market experience suffers from four lacunae: the inadequate analysis of the multi-layered facets of their identities and the disadvantages they face; the narrow range of labour market outcomes studied (primarily labour market participation and unemployment); a lack of recent studies on the integration of Muslim women, educated in the UK and with English as their first language, into the labour market; and the absence of material on several sub-groups due to the lack of data, notably Arab, Christian Indian and White-British Muslim women. Using a large sample of data from the 2011 British census, the analyses presented here suggest that most non-White women face significant labour market penalties, with religion having a greater impact on labour market outcomes than race/ethnicity; Muslim women were the most disadvantaged, compared to other religious minorities, more so in relation to unemployment levels, part-time jobs and out of employment history, than in relation to occupational class and over-qualification. The results also suggest that the penalties facing Muslim women shaped by their ethnicity; not all Muslim women were similarly disadvantaged.